Darkest Noon
by HiroW
Summary: A story of heroes in the darkest times of Ragnarok.


It was an especially windy day in Prontera. The wind rustled Tetsu's brown hair as he sat next to cart with his shop open, selling items for cheaper than they should be. He wasn't especially hopeful about making sales- he simply needed something to do while he rested. He just began to lean back when an archer approached his cart. She scanned through the merchandise, eyeing each item carefully. She seemed to be around 18, which would be just a year below him. The stranger picked up a bow and began pulling on the string. "How much?" She asked, keeping her eye on the weapon.

"The blacksmith stood up, scratching his head. "Eh... 50 zeny. He replied without even looking at the item. The archer looked at him suspiciously at first, then smiled, and dug in her item bag for some zeny. She then pulled it out, and dropped some zeny in his open palm. Tetsu decided 2 hours was enough time for loafing around, and began to close his shop.

Suddenly, a scream was heard from near the fountains of Prontera. Tetsu wheeled around, and saw something strange as he looked up. It was as if darkness itself was swallowing the sky. "It's much too early to be night..." Tetsu thought as he observed the darkness that the city was now surrounded in. Many voices of panic surrounded him. It wasn't too long ago that Tetsu met a blacksmith, just like himself, that traveled frequently. He told him of these traveling 'nights', and they have already visited payon and morroc. Only few adventurers lived to talk about them- and now, there were the hundreds in Prontera that just may not be able to tell their tales, either...

As Tetsu prepared to toss the last apple into his cart, an arrow flew by and pierced the apple to a wall, right out of his hands. Tetsu froze where he stood, and began to try and think rationally. Even a novice knew that there was no fighting in Prontera, and it was too dark to see anything beyond a few feet ahead. Suddenly, Tetsu's ears picked up a loud, deep grunt. He whirled around to face the direction of the grunt, which happened to be where the arrow came from. As he turned, he realized he was facing an Orc Archer that stood before him. The Orc had another arrow drawn and ready, and aimed at the Blacksmith.

Screams were heard from all around Prontera as the dark consumed the once peaceful town. The Orc Archer fired, but missed by inches. Tetsu pulled out his Great Axe as he rushed at the green beast. It clumsily reached for another arrow in its quill, but was interrupted by the axe blade severing his hand off of it's wrist. The Orc angrily cried out, and dropped to its knees.

-by Hiro

A young woman of teenage years laid quietly upon the rooftops, lightly running her index finger over the blade of her dagger. "SHIT!!" she screamed as she cut herself. She scowled and sat up and sucked on her finger, pathetically whimpering. "Owowow..." she glared at her dagger and was about to rid herself of the cursed things, when the darkness hit. She blinked and looked up. "What in the bloody 'ell..." she muttered, tilting her head a bit, her golden locks followed her head. She tossed the pony tail over her shoulder and stood up. Her eyes narrowed. What in the world was going on? She took a few steps forward and crouched down. Then blinked. Oh nevermind, it wasn't anything to interesting. She yawned and laid back down. Just a bunch of orcs ravaging the town. Like she could do anything. She was just a rogue. And a fairly good one at that (but she wasn't one to brag.) She yawned, then screamed when the roof to her building collapsed. Ok. Maybe there was a bit more to that day than what processed in her mind. But she was slow and didn't care much about others. Life was all about her.

-by XoSwingfoxoX

An orc slashed at Tetsu's shoulder from behind, leaving a palm sized cut bleeding freely. The blacksmith whirled around and relieved the orc of the weight of its own head. As he did so, he noticed he was completely surrounded by the monsters. Sweating now, he held up his axe, desperately searching for an escape route. "Kai." He though. "I have to regroup with her and the others." Finally, he spotted an opening between two stupid looking orcs that were holding hand axes upside-down. Tetsu made a run for it, barely sliding between them as they slowly turned around to grab him. As son as he left the circle of orcs, he looked up only to find an especially large orc with a large, bloody axe tightly gripped in it's green hands. Before the blacksmith could react, the beast raised its massive weapon threateningly. Tetsu closed his eyes and prepared for the worst when a young man shouted, _"Extremity Fist!"_ Tetsu felt something warm hit his face and opened his eyes. A monk stood behind the giant orc with his fist impaling it's stomach. The blacksmith quickly got to his feet and wiped his face off with a cloth from his cart.

"Thank you, random insignificant monk with no name!" He yelled behind and began to run.

As he left, he faintly heard a voice saying, "Help me, I have no more sp le-"

It was hard to see through the sudden darkness, but Tetsu ran around Prontera for several minutes. He did a good job avoiding any danger, and finally spotted a shadow on a roof of a building. "It's her." Tetsu said to himself and jumped up to the roof. The girl seemed to be sleeping, so he shook her awake. After a few minutes of shaking, he pulled out a megaphone from his cart and yelled, "Wake up!!" The girl jumped awake, and brushed her eyes sleepily.

"Oh..." She mumbled. "It's you."

"Yeah... we gotta get out of here, it's dangerous." He said, looking down to Prontera. There were screams in the air that sent a chill down Tetsu's spine.

"Where are we going?" Kai asked. Tetsu wasn't prepared with a reply. He sat there, scratching his groin loudly for about five minutes. "Will you stop clawing at that thing?!" She yelled at last.

"Oh yeah... a guard told me on the way here, that alot of the survivors are gathered at the castle. It's safe there, and they are planning on what to do for now. We gotta be careful though, there are still plenty of weird stuff going on out here."

-by Hiro

Kai portruded her lip in an angry manor. She did NOT like being bossed around, especially by HIM!

"Why do I gots ta listen ta YOU, any'ow?" Her eyes narrowed. Not only was her nap disturbed, but he was making her rush about. "'Side, none of this gots anything to do with me."

Tetsu looked around nervously, Why is she being so difficult!? He took a deep breath, "Look, we need to get the hell out of here."

"Yeah, yeah. Whateva. I don't get a shit really." She yawned and stretched her arms lightly. The peaceful moment she was playing out in her head was soon disturbed by a snarl, then an axe that shot up and landed inbetween the two roof-standers, and broke through. Kai blinked once, then twitched, then slowly put her arms down. "Ahem...as you were sayin', Tetsu..."she muttered, a slight twitch in her eye as she watched the pierced building.

Tetsu stared, and looked up at Kai. "I think we should go that way." he said, pointing to the direction opposite of the axe's starting point.

Kai jumped, and slid down the roof, then carefully jumped down, landign in a crouched position, Tetsu followed. She stood up and rubbed her head. "Bloody 'ell this ain't a good day at all." She looked up and they were face to face with an orc, wielding a bloody axe, th carcass of an innocent boy hacked in front of them. Kai looked sick.

-by XoSwingfoxoX

Tetsu, Kai and the beast all stood silently, calculating each other's moves. The orc may seem to be nothing but a brute, but it had its instincts. And it's instincts told it, like the human's instincts told Tetsu and Kai, falsely making the first move would be fatal. Suddenly, Kai boldly made the first move. _"Cloaking!"_

She instantly disappeared into the darkness, leaving the giant orc stupefied. "Now's my chance." Tetsu thought and jumped into the air, axe ready. _"Adrenaline Rush!"_ His body felt a surge of new energy as he dove at the monstrous creature. However, Kai's cloaking actually made the creature more panicked than stunned. It lashed out with surprising speed, striking down Tetsu with its massive arm. Tetsu fell to the ground, spitting out blood as his body heavily hit the cement. The orc gripped it's own axe with both of its hands now, and its eyes glowed evilly.

_"Backstab!"_ The sound of Kai's dagger digging into the orc's back was heard as she reappeared behind the monster. Even though the blade dug deep within the creature, surprisingly very little blood squirted out of its back. It was a technique that took great precision and skill, and Tetsu thought that the rogue executed it quite nicely. However, there was not much time to admire her skill, for the orc did not stagger as the blade pierced it's back. In fact, he went into a raging frenzy and changed targets to the girl. It swung its axe sideways to her instead of bringing it down on Tetsu. Kai wasn't prepared for the blow- she expected the thing to go down. She wasn't very familiar with fighting creatures from distant lands, for she never traveled much. The rogue was sent sprawling into a wall.

"Shit!" Tetsu yelled as he thought of going to see if she was okay, but realized he had more to worry about. The giant brought down its weapon, this time at Tetsu. The blacksmith raised his weapon in time to meet the orcish axe. The two stood with their weapons locked, and Tetsu just noticed that the orc's axe was almost twice as big as his. The blacksmith slowly began to get pushed back, and decided he needed to make some room. As he prepared to use his Cart Revolution, he lost his grip and felt a blade sink into his shoulder blade. Unlike the time Kai used her backstab, this wound was bloody. Dark blood sprayed out of his shoulder as Tetsu screamed out in pain. The orc still kept pushing down on the axe, making it sink further into his shoulder.

_"Backstab!"_ He heard again. This time, the orc felt the pain. Kai stabbed the thing right where she stabbed him before. The creature dropped to one knee, and shouted curses that apparently weren't in English. Tetsu watched as the thing finally dropped to the ground, face flat. He stumbled to his feet, and dug through his cart. He pulled out a white cloth, and began wrapping his wound. The pain almost made him pass out, but he couldn't do that out in the open when it was still so dangerous.

"...Let's get to the castle." Tetsu said, and began walking without waiting for a reply. (Ok, when we get to the castle there will already be a bunch of people there, and a guard will check us before going in to see if we can help fight. Inside the castle there will be archers and hunters on the guard towers, and the fighter types (swordsman, monks, knights, assassin, rogue, crusaders etc) will be in the battlefront protecting the castle from all sides. There aren't only monsters coming from prontera, but they're coming from out in the fields too. The spellcasters (mage, wizard, sage, etc) will be behind the fighters outside. Healers, (acolyte, priests) will be inside helping the wounded. Blacksmiths are helping out by selling stuff to people. I hope you know your classes, because the explaining of the scenery might be hard otherwise.)

-by Hiro

The air was thick and it smelled of blood all around the castle halls. Numerous knights, guards, and many other people readied themselves to fight off the Orc attack. A young blonde haired knight looked into the eyes of the priest that have been called for support; they all had an unsure look about them. Though he couldn't blame them, seeing how the Orcs out numbered them greatly. He noticed that there were many shops set up by wondering blacksmiths, and he also noticed they were taking advantage of the attack by overcharging on the smallest things. The knight looked at his worn out armor and knew he needed better equipment if he was going to last through the fight. Looking in a merchants cart he couldn't believe the outrageous prices they were asking. In a rage he had come close to drawing his sword on one, but now wasn't the time to deal with the scum. (This place is a zoo...) Thinking to himself he found the nearest corner and crouched down to wait for something to happen. All the other knights were arrogantly joking about how they were going to out slay each other. "Fools...It'll be better when you've all died off. How the hell did I get myself into this anyways...I should have gone to a different city." "To be honest I don't care if the others die off, more for me. But I have to team up with these idiots if I wanna get out of here alive." He tried not to talk too loud because of the people that filled the room. He watched as novices put on there feeble armor and puny weapons, thinking they could make a difference. "Fools should hide with the others...Heh its going to be funny when they find themselves surrounded and out numbed four to one." he said in a quite voice, careful not to start anything unnecessary before the battle. One of the knights happened to notice him in the corner muttering to him self. He walked up to the sitting man but didn't speak right away as if to wait for the man to introduce himself. But the man did nothing but stare off into space. Then finally the sitting knight looked up at him in an annoyed kind of fashion. "Well what the hell do you want?" Surprised that the sitting knight had said such a thing in a greeting he was lost for words. Then the blonde haired knight repeated "Hey buddy is there something I can help you with or are you here to stare at me like a fruit?" Now angry the standing knight stampeded off muttering curses all the way. Annoyed, the blonde haired knight just laid back, but then saw a dancer walking by, quickly got up and raced over to her with a few zeny in his hand. Slowly when he had come with in 10 feet and walked up to the dancer drool coming from the corner of his mouth ask "Excuse me my fine looking dancer but could you please grant this knight a dance for good luck?" Noticing a disgusted look in her face he quickly added, "Please could you grant this for a knight that could possibly lose his life in the heat of battle?" The dancer let out a sigh but agreed to out of pity but that was just fine with the blonde knight who was now had a large perverted grin growing across his face. The dancer refused to dance for money because she felt dirty enough as it was with that perverted knight in deep trance staring at her shaking hips. "Well at the very least I got something nice out of this smirked the knight as the dancer walked off disgusted by the behavior of the rude knight.

-by Moogle

Kai scoffed. Thats all there was to it. She paced behind him, folding her arms across her chest, the looked down and straigthed out her shirt. She hated battling in these cloths. After fixing that she tightened her pony tail then blink! Hey! She was behind Tetsu! She wasn't supposed to be there! She glared and hurried forward and shoved past him so SHE could be in the lead. That woudl teach him for waking her up from her nap. Stupid Tetsu. Stupid Orcs.

Tetsu sighed and rubbed his temples, deciding best just to drop it. He pushed his cart, moving some locks out of his face and hurried ot catch up.

"Stupid blacksmith..." muttered the disgruntle rogue as they hurried to the castle, takign the back way.

Upon arriving at the castle, Kai stopped, her eyes traveled upward, scanning the scenery. "Shit..." she muttered ad scratched her head. "I always fergit 'ow big this pl-OW!"

Tetsu, wasn't paying attention, a cloud shaped like a hammer had distracted him, he blinked suddenly realizing he had hit Kai in the back of the legs. "Oops...erm...sorry..." he muttered, half embarrassed for not paying attention.

"WHY YOU 'LIL BASTARD!!"

"Ah!" Tetsu ran around the other side of his cart, as Kai persued im, glaring.

"I"M GONNA KILL YOU!!"

"Ah!! I Said I was sorry!!" Why am I letting her come with me again... Thought the poor black smith.

Their game of cat and mouse soon ended however, when Kai jumped into the cart and was stopped when she saw an approaching guard. Tetsu blinked and turned around- finally! He stepped forward to greet him. The guard stepped forward and glared. "And who might you to be?" he said, distain clear in his voice.

"My name is Tetsu, and this is-"

"KAI!"

"Yeah..erm...Kai. Orcs are invading Prontera. We've come to do our part here."

He raised his brow. "We don't need your help, go back there and get eaten for all I care." The guard was as moody as Kai...

Kai snarled a bit, "Listen, pal, I have no idea why the fuck wer'e here...but we are...and you had better move before I fuc-"

"Kai!" snapped Tetsu. "Please excuse her. Let us pass. We need to get in..."

The guard looked at his finger nails. "No."

"I'm going to bloody eat him..." she muttered, her fingers running along her dagger.

The guard just blinked at her. "Listen, miss, I'll take that as a threat and-" Kai tackled him. Enough of his silly words!

Tetsu stared at the two, picked up his cart, and strolled on by, hey, a diversion is a diversion and at least he got in. Once he got in, he strolled around, looking left and right at the various people; blacksmiths, hunters, mages running to and fro. It was a war zone. He shook his head and sighed, then set his cart up with the other blacksmiths, deciding to do a bit of sales while he waited for Kai. As he looked around, his brow raised at the prices of the others and shook his head. His prices were reasonable, figuring it would give him something to do.

-by XoSwingfoxoX

Standing with a perverted smirk still from ear to ear the blonde haired knight finally whiped his drool and continued back to his spot, but the pungent smell of the castle had gotten to him. Choking on the fumes he could only describe as "rotting ass". He ran for the door bumping into a blacksmith that had just been setting up shop. Not even looking back, he still hurried to the door and burst out gasping for air. He found himself standing before a nasty fight between a Girl Rouge and a guard.

"You fucking dumb bastard you'll regret this!" shouted the girl rouge with a furious look in her eye.

"You crazy bitch you'll pay for that!" Screamed the guard as the dagger cut his right arm deep enough to start to bleed.

Enjoying every moment of this the blonde haired knight slowly walked up to them as they furiously fought and cursed at each other. Then they paused their fighting as they noticed that the knight was slowly walking to them with this sword drawn.

"Who the 'ell are you?" asked the rouge in a annoyed voice. The rouge continued "Here to help your friend out are you?"

The knight just continued to walk up to them and paused for a moment, Then finally let out a long smirk and spoke.

"Mind if I join in on the good fun? I could use a nice stretch." He spoke in a voice so toneless that he could hardly be heard by the two of them, now gawking at him. The guard seemed very uneasy now that he had two people to fight.

"Back off, this has nothing to do with you." said the guard in a stern voice. The blonde knight then turned his attention to the rouge as if he was asking permission with his eyes.

She smirked and cracked her knuckles. "Sure thing, mate, always up fer cuttin anutha dick offa bastard. But first who the bloody 'ell are you?"

A big smile grew over the face of the knight and he struck a bizarre pose "I am Charles but you can call me CJ."

Tired of waiting the guard lunged at the rouge who easily evaded him. The rouge then struck out with her dagger but the guard blocked the attack with his shield. "Wait a minute I wasn't finished!" shouted CJ with a evil grin on his face. He started a slow run at the two who were clashing and he struck out at the guard who was blocking every attack thrown at him.

"Fuck..That's it!" CJ yelled as he used his most common move _"BASH!"_ he screamed as he smashed his sword into the guards shield, knocking him on his ass.

-by Moogle

Tetsu's body still ached all over. He was good at hiding it, however, and acted like nothing was wrong as he slightly limped into the castle hall. As he entered, he bumped into a blonde knight. Tetsu slid against the wall and sat down. He began pulling out objects from his cart and laid them neatly on a carpet. There were others merchants and blacksmiths with shops open, but most of them overcharged to get the best out of these people. The halls were very noisy, since there wasn very much room and most of Prontera was in there. Tetsu paused as he pulled out a potion from his cart, and decided to use it. The pain went away almost instantly. He took a glance around, and noticed for the first time how horrible the situation was. A circle of generous priests took turns healing the wounded, but not one of them even received a word of thanks. A crying mage sat on the floor with blood flowing freely on the ground, but an acolyte quickly rushed to him to help. A few people came back in limping from the north side of the castle. It seemed that about half of the capable defenders were at the north fending off attackers.

Tetsu frowned, and slightly lowered the prices of his potions.

As he continued to look around, he noticed there were billboards in the place. The billboards read: "Those who aid in the orc raid and survive will be handsomely rewarded."

"So that why these people are so eager to help." Tetsu thought sadly. Even in times like these, the greedy human race expected something in return for helping others. Tetsu made a mental note to give a discount to the priests.

"The raid will take place in a few minutes. Brave fighters, prepare to drive these foul beasts out of our sacred town." A voice rang out through the halls. An important looking man stood at the end of the hall. A crowd of people began to rush from shop to shop, looking for the best prices.

"500 zeny! That a damned outrage!" Voices of dissatisfaction were heard from the other side of the hall. Most people looked at Tetsu doubtfully when they saw his prices. He had no reason to rip them off, he loved zeny, but he loved valuable items more- and he had a few of those.

Just as a dancer was about to make her purchase, the castle gates slammed open. et go of me dammit! Someone shouted. Tetsu knew without looking. Kai. As two guards hauled off Kai, two more guards were taking away someone else- the blonde knight he bumped into.

"Fucking great." Tetsu said out loud, shaking his head to himself. Everyone was staring at the two idiots that attacked a guard.

"I heard they put a dead orc next to the guards unconscious body." Someone whispered to his friend. "And the dirt left tracks, so it was obvious that the orc body was dragged there."

Tetsu followed Kai with his eyes as she and her partner in crime was thrown into the jail. "Cool your head in there for a while, fools!" The guard yelled out angrily. Kai yelled back, but her comments included much more profanity.

"The raid will now commence!" yelled the important looking guy from the end of the hall. A large, red haired crusader roared a battle cry and ran out the door, followed by the rest of the fighters. As the fighters left the castle, sounds of clashing metal and explosions seeped through the castle walls.

Only a few people were left in the castle, including the priests, Tetsu, the blonde knight, and Kai, who was still yelling from the jail. Does she ever get tired? Tetsu watched the gates for a while, when a novice entered. He was bleeding badly, and the priests rushed over to help, but the novice collapsed. He whispered something, his voice barely audible.

"What is it?" one of the priests asked in a worried tone.

"...Can I b gm pls/?" The novice breathed.

The priests let go of the novice, and his head hit the ground with a thud.

-by Hiro


End file.
